My Drain Company Blog : Archive for August, 2014

The Very First Labor Day Celebration

Friday, August 29th, 2014

Labor Day as a federal holiday, held on the first Monday of September, has been with us now for 120 years. President Grover Cleveland signed the law that made Labor Day a national holiday in 1894. Ever since then, the three-day weekend has provided people in the U.S. with the opportunity for vacations, time with their families, shopping trips, and a general celebration of the conclusion of summer and the beginning of fall.

However, there were twelve years of Labor Day observations in the U.S. before it became an official holiday. The first Labor Day celebration took place in 1882 in New York City on September 5. According to the accounts from the time, it had a rough start and almost didn’t happen.

The main event planned for that first Labor Day was a parade along Broadway that was to start at City Hall. However, the parade ran into a bit of a snag early on. The marchers started to line up for the procession around 9 a.m., with a police escort to make sure the event went peacefully. However, the problem of the day wasn’t rowdy members of the parade—it was that nobody had remembered to bring a band!

With people ready to march, but no music to march to, it started to look like no parade would happen at all, and the first Labor Day would have ended up a failure. But just in time, Matthew Maguire of the Central Labor Union—one of the two men who first proposed the celebration—ran across the City Hall lawn to the Grand Marshal of the parade, William McCabe, to inform him that 200 men from the Jeweler’s Union of Newark were crossing the ferry to Manhattan… and they had a band!

At 10 a.m., only an hour late, the band from Newark walked down Broadway playing a number from a popular Gilbert and Sullivan opera. They passed McCabe and the other 700 marchers, who then fell in line behind them. Soon, the spectators joined in, and an estimated 10,000 to 20,000 people marched through Lower Manhattan.

According to the New York Times, “The windows and roofs and even the lamp posts and awning frames were occupied by persons anxious to get a good view of the first parade in New York of workingmen of all trades united in one organization.”

The parade concluded two hours later when the marchers reached Reservoir Park. But the party was only getting started. Until 9 p.m., some 25,000 people celebrated with picnics and speeches and beer kegs. It was an enormous success, and all thanks to the speedy arrival of jewelers carrying band instruments.

If those musicians from Newark hadn’t shown up, perhaps we wouldn’t have the holiday opportunity that we now have every year. However you celebrate your Labor Day, our family at My Drain Company wishes your family a happy end of summer.

Common Causes of Drain Repairs

Friday, August 22nd, 2014

The drains in your sinks and showers rid your home of thousands of gallons of wastewater every year. Although you may not think of this seemingly minor part of your home too often, the drains deserve special attention as they may run into repair needs at some point. Drain repair is no small matter; problems with your drain can cause major issues throughout your plumbing system and your home, including damaged pipes and sewage backup. You may prevent these serious issues from occurring by taking simple steps such as purchasing drain covers, avoiding pouring grease down the sink, and scheduling regular plumbing maintenance. However, if you do run into the need for repairs, My Drain Company is here to help.

Here Are Some of the Reasons Our Customers Call for Drain Repair Service

  • Clogs: If a drain is slow or stopped, it may be due to clogs from food scraps, soap scum, hair, or fats and oils that solidify as they move down the drain.
  • Leaks: Water leaks may begin to form underneath your drain, indicating either a link from the sink basin or a more serious problem in your plumbing system. A plumber is qualified to locate and repair the exact source of the leak.
  • Age: Drains may also form problems due to old age, including corrosion and rust. In this case, you may have pipes that need replacement.
  • Hard Water: If you have “hard water,” it means that an excess of magnesium and calcium affect your water, causing mineral buildups to form along the insides of pipes. Hard water is a common problem that can be solved by installing a water softener.
  • Noises: Noises from your drain such as a gurgling may indicate that the pressure levels in your pipes are not balanced.
  • Odors: Finally, many homeowners call for repair when foul odors emit from the drain. This may simply indicate a problem with the P-trap underneath the drain, or it may indicate a problem with the home’s sewer line.

Whatever the problem is, you need a professional plumber to fix your drain as soon as possible. The dependable technicians at My Drain Company have years of plumbing experience, so if you need drain repair service in Glendale, CA, give us a call!

Water Savings from Low-Flow Fixture Installation

Friday, August 15th, 2014

Southern California is currently experiencing a severe drought, and this has placed focus on the importance of water conservation in homes. There are many ways to save water on a daily basis, but one of the best long-term solutions that will benefit both the environment and your utility bills is to arrange for the installation of low-flow fixtures in your home: toilets, faucets, showerheads.

WaterSense, a partnership with the U.S. EPA, certifies fixtures that make major reductions in water use while still maintaining high performance levels. When you arrange for a plumber to replace your old fixtures with WaterSense or other low-flow models, you can significantly lower your water use without needing to make sacrifices in comfort. Call the plumbing specialists at My Drain Company today to learn more about the benefits of these low-flow fixtures and how you can have them installed.

How Much Water Do These Low-Flow Models Save?

The amount of water you conserve using a low-flow plumbing fixture depends on how much water your current fixtures use. For example, toilets build before 1980 wasted an enormous amount of water with each flush: 6 to 7 gallons. Current models have lowered this to 2.2 gallons, a huge improvement. But WaterSense pressure-assisted low-flow toilets use only 1.6 gallons per flush, a 20% reduction from current models and a 75% reduction from older models. Thanks to the air-pressure in these toilets, they do not lose any flushing power along with water reduction. Because toilets account for approximately a third of all indoor water use, replacing them with water-conserving models can mean around $2,000 off your yearly utility bills.

A standard bathroom sink faucets allow 2.2 gallons of water to flow through them a minute. A WaterSense faucet lowers that amount to 1.5 gallons per minute, and again there is no noticeable loss in performance. Using these low-flow faucets, and average family of 5 can conserve 700 gallons a water a year, which is equal to 40 showers. You can save water in the shower as well with WaterSense showerheads, which can save that same family of five 2,900 gallons of water a year.

There’s another way that you’ll save money with low-flow installations: less stress on your water heater. With less hot water used in showers and for washing, your hot water heater will need to work less, and you’ll receive savings on your power bills as well.

Low-flow installation costs more than standard plumbing fixtures, but as you can tell from the above information, you will soon make back the extra costs and can expect to keep saving money for many years. Call My Drain Company to talk about how we can set up your home with water-conserving and money-saving low-flow fixtures. If you need the services of a plumber in Glendale, CA, call us.

3 Signs of a Quality Professional Plumbing Company

Friday, August 8th, 2014

Finding a professional plumbing company to handle your repairs, new installations, or maintenance is easier now than ever before. Instead of using a phone book directory, you can simply type in a few words on search engine or say a phrase into your smart phone and receive a long list of local plumbing companies. How do you choose the best plumber in Burbank, CA from these lists?

It helps to have a set list of criteria of what you most want from a plumbing company. Below, we’ve put together three points you should definitely have on your list of necessary qualities for any plumber you are thinking of hiring. Once you’ve given this list some thought, we are certain that you will place My Drain Company near the top of the companies you want to hire.

Look For These 3 Signs of Quality In A Plumbing Company

  1. 24-hour emergency service: Plumbing repair issues rarely happen at a time when it’s convenient for you. If the time is also inconvenient for your plumber, then you have a serious problem. Make sure that the plumber you choose to hire is ready whenever your plumbing breaks with round-the clock emergency service. Check to see if the company offers same-day service for standard jobs as well.
  2. Fully licensed and insured: To make sure that the plumbing company you hire is truly professional, check that it is licensed with the State Contractors Board (the company will produce proof upon request) and has insurance so that you will not be responsible for repairs should the plumbers cause any damage to your home. (You won’t need to worry much about accidental damage from a professional company, however.)
  3. Many years in the business: A plumbing company that has only been around for a few years could have experienced plumbers on its staff, but you won’t have any guarantee about this. The more years a company has been in business, the more assurance you have that it employs excellent plumbers who have delivered numerous quality jobs that have kept clients coming back. With a decade or more of experience behind it, a company shows that it has earned the community’s trust.

My Drain Company goes above and beyond these expectations. We have served homeowners with excellent service for more than 15 years, we are fully licensed and insured, and offer 24-hour emergency and same-day service. When we send a Burbank, CA plumber to your house, you can expect he or she will get right work and deliver you the best service possible.